History: The Boise Drupal Group facilitated a highly succesful Drupal Track with 8 presentations over two days at the Boise Code Camp held March 27th and 28th. The Boise Drupal Group was asked if we could do a similar set of persentations at the Portland Code Camp on May 22nd. We discussed this at our monthly meeting on April 28th and while we may be able to do a couple presentations, most of the BCC presenters have commitments in May that will prevent us from providing a full Drupal Track at the Portland event.
Request: Would the members of the Portland Group be interested in doing at Drupal Track of Presentations at the Portland Code Camp on May 22nd? The Boise Group's experience in doing the Boise Code Camp Track was that it was a great way to build an awarness of what Drupal is and how it can be used.
Please get back to me as soon as possible with your thoughts on doing this. I can put you in touch with the organizers of the Portland Code Camp. You can check out the Boise Code Camp session schedule at http://www.boisecodecamp.org/Portals/0/public/Schedule2010.pdf and the actual session discriptions along with session materials at http://boisecodecamp.com/Sessions/tabid/80/Default.aspx for a little more background on what the Boise Drupal Group did.
Thanks,
Clint Tinsley
Comments
A belated reply, but I
A belated reply, but I thought that us having a showing at Portland Code Camp is a good idea.
I do wish Portland Code Camp had contacted us directly though. I wonder why they didn't? One, it's the most basic form of PR to reach out to local groups and two, why go out of state for Drupal programming? You guys seem to have done a great job, and well done on that count, but it's a big ask to expect you all to come all this way to do the same thing again, when we're already here. Ours is one of the largest DUGs and we've held several DruaplCamps. We host monthly meetings featuring presentations and we have guys who regularly present at a number of tech conferences. Maybe we are all still too busy or what not, but it seems a logical first step. Why go all the way to the Boise DUG? Or did I miss an earlier post? Further, since I see no Drupal talks, am I correct in assuming that none of you was able to make it?
Of course, local folks really are super busy right now. The Drupal market is insane and this follows hot on the heels of DrupalCon and is just before Open Source Bridge, and we were contacted indirectly and late in the game. However, done more in advance, and as a plan A rather than a backup-plan, I'm sure we could have put something together.
And maybe we still can. Are sessions still open? They seem to be. The site does not appear to say they are closed and the presenter sign-up form still shows up. If that's the case, maybe some of us could put together a couple of talks? Anyone? Mikey? Dan?
I have an earlier engagement which I may be able to get out of, but probably not. I'd try and help with prep though. Here I go again encouraging something I probably can't be a part of, but I do believe this is undoubtedly an opportunity, one our group should probably try to take advantage of. The focus is a mix of open and proprietary software, but it's still aimed at individuals, and this is exactly the sort of gathering where we should be making a showing. Show someone a powerful tool and there's a good chance they'll use it. Like most of you, I believe that Drupal is the best CMS out there, but if someone else shows them a lesser tool first, and there's a good chance they will not choose that instead, if we don't make a showing.
Sala kahle,
Grant
Portland Codecamp Drupal Track
If you can go on their website, register for codecamp and submit a session, then they are still taking submissions and it may be possible to still have a Drupal Track and I would recommend that you do so immediately. Last communication I had with them was back on April 29th when they wrote me "Drupal sessions are still welcome should any come forward. Session proposals are open until May 7th." I could write them and see if they are still interested in having some Drupal sessions. As you have observed, I don't think that currently we have anyone from the Boise group presenting. I am member of the Boise Codecamp committee and I know we were still adding and revising the schedule up into the week of the event and suspect they are as well.
The only reason I can give you for them not contacting you directly earlier on is because some of their organizers were presenters at the Boise Codecamp event and in observing that we had put together a Drupal Track, they asked us (Boise) if we could do a repeat of the same track at the Portland Event.
I did give the Portland Drupal group great marks with the the Portland Codecamp Organizers and when it was determined that the Boise presenters would not be available for the Portland event, I suggested reaching out to the Portland Group, volunteering to do so since I was already a registered with Drupal.org and they gave me the okay to do so.
Clint